Kiplinger’s has a nice calculator to help determine when you will recover your investment money. You enter what you started with before the market fell and what you have now. Then you enter two of the following three items: annual contribution, annual rate of return or time to recoup. The calculator will calculate the third (missing) item. Go to Kiplinger’s to use the calculator.
When Will I Get My Money Back?
September 18th, 2009To Roll or Not to Roll
September 15th, 2009Anytime you switch jobs you have to make the decision on what to do with your old 401k. Most of the time, the advice is to roll it over into an IRA or to your new employer’s 401k (if they allow rollovers and if they have good investment choices). And most of the time that probably is the best advice. But if you have really good investment choices in your old 401k you may be better off leaving it, especially if you are in your 50s. If you need the money, you can withdraw out of the 401k at a younger age (55) than you can if you roll in over into an IRA (59 1/2). Also investors in a 401k plan often pay much lower fees than retail investors – sometimes half as much. So if you have great investment choices you may want to consider leaving it in the 401k, especially if you are in the over 50 crowd.
Mutual Fund Stats to Consider
September 12th, 2009When researching mutual funds it can get so confusing. There are so many things to look at. Which numbers are more important? We have all heard the warning that “past performance is no guarantee of future results” so looking a returns over the past year shouldn’t be the only gauge we use, or maybe not a gauge at all. In my research, it seems the most critical numbers to look at are:
- Expense ratio: You get better returns automatically if you invest in funds with low fees. You keep more of your money with lower expense ratio funds.
- Risk: Most investors are better off avoiding high-risk funds. Morningstar gives funds risk ratings.
- Stewardship: How does the fund treat investors? Are they trying to protect shareholders or maximize profits? Are they on your side? Morningstar grades funds on their stewardship and stay away from those earning grades of D or F.
- Manager Stake: Are the top managers of the fund investing in the fund? They should be if they think it is a good fund, right? If at least one of its managers doesn’t have $500,000 invested, something is wrong. The Spy Selector test at Morningstar will tell you this information.
- Morningstar Ratings/Picks: Is the fund at least a Morningstar 3 star fund. I try to buy only funds with 4 or 5 stars. If they slip down to a 3 star, I usually don’t sell them, at least right away. Sometimes fund will move up or down quite a bit and I try to not buy/sell too frequently. I even have kept a fund that was a 2 star because it was a Morningstar “Pick.” I base most of my funds off of the Kiplinger 25 or Money 70 which I have links to on my website.
Hope these suggestions help you make sense of all of the numbers. Do you have anything else you have found useful?
Shopping for Insurance?
September 2nd, 2009I recently shopped around for home and auto insurance. I have had the same company now for at least three years and thought I may get a better deal somewhere else. I contacted several different companies and completed several online applications. I ended up keeping the insurer that I have – no company could beat the rates. I did find some useful websites during the search. I am always nervous about changing companies as you don’t know if they are financially sound or if they have a lot of complaints against them. You don’t want to switch and then have those kind of problems. Here is NAIC National Association of Insurance Commissioners . You can search by company and state to find out about companies.
I also did a google search on my state “insurance regulator” and found the state site with more information on insurance companies and their record in my state. I even found that my state has comparison rates from numerous companies just by answering a few questions. The resulting chart gave me the rate info, financial info and complaint index all in one table. For Texans it was at www.helpinsure.com.
I did end up saving money on my auto insurance by taking a defensive driving course again. I have been taking the course every 3 years to get the discount and my discount had just expired. So I took the course again. I save $43 every 6 months by my husband and I taking the course. The course was $35 each and that included lunch and a “comedy” guy (although he wasn’t so funny but it was better than sitting at the computer 6 hours to take it.
Teaching Your Kids about Alcohol and Drugs
August 28th, 2009We all know that kids are influenced by what they see. The old “do what I say, not what I do” doesn’t work. A study came out recently that looked at the influence of a parent’s drug and/or alcohol use and their children’s drug and/or alcohol use.
Compared to teens who have not seen their parent(s) drunk, those who have are more than twice as likely to get drunk in a typical month, and three times likelier to use marijuana and smoke cigarettes, according to the National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XIV: Teens and Parents, the 14th annual back-to-school survey conducted by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.
“Some Moms’ and Dads’ behavior and attitudes make them parent enablers—parents who send their 12- to 17-year olds a message that it’s okay to smoke, drink, get drunk and use illegal drugs like marijuana,” said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA’s chairman and founder and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. “Teens’ behavior is strongly associated with their parents’ behavior and expectations, so parents who expect their children to drink and use drugs will have children who drink and use drugs.”
For more on the study check out this link or download a free copy of the study with this link.
Besides influencing our kids, remember that a regular 12 oz beer is at least 140 calories and an 8 oz glass of wine is at least 160 calories. And who needs the extra calories??
Work From Home
August 21st, 2009
It is so hard when you try to find work from home income. There are so many scams out there. You don’t know where to turn to for legitimate work. I found a story on the ABC News website concerning this topic and thought I would share the link. The article has quite a few different ideas and links to places to go for more information. Here is the link. I hope you find something that you enjoy and brings in some extra cash.
How Does Your Salary Compare?
August 12th, 2009There are several websites you can go to in order to find information on how your salary compares to others or how much to ask for if you are asked your salary requirements for a new job.
Check out http://www.salary.comfor average salaries for each of about 3,700 job categories. You can search for free. If you want a more personalized report based on your experience and education they also offer reports for a fee.
Another option to check out is www.payscale.com. Here again there are free searches or a premium membership for $19.95 which may be worth it if you can get a higher salary out of it.
There is also www.jobnob.com which is a newer site but is totally free as the site makes money from job listings.
Check these out before your next pay increase or job application.
Teach Your Kids About Money
August 10th, 2009I found a very good resource for teaching kids about money. It is filled with various activities you can do with your children. Click the image below to go to this site.
Where Do I go for College Financial Aid?
August 5th, 2009There are a lot of websites out there to help you with information on college aid. Here are a few of them:
For student aid basics go to www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov
For college cost calculators go to www.collegeboard.com
For loan information go to www.finaid.org
For 529 college savings plan info go to www.savingforcollege.com
How do your thoughts (or your parent’s thoughts) on paying for college education compare to other parent’s thoughts?
A report in USA Today referenced a Sallie Mae/Gallup survey asking parents how much of their child’s education they were willing to pay for found the following:
All of it – 15%
Most of it – 33%
Half – 31%
Little – 16%
None – 5%
What do you think? Financial advisor’s normally insist that you make sure you have your retirement accounts funded before saving anything for college education. Students can borrow for college or apply for scholarships and grants. You can’t get scholarships, grants or loans to retire. You are better off saving for retirement and let the kids take care of their education. If you don’t take care of your retirement you may be putting the burden of your retirement care onto your children.
Are We In A Recovery?
July 30th, 2009I found that Kiplingers has a great page on their website that tracks six key trends that will indicate when we are in a financial recovery. It looks at the interest rate spread, existing home sales, consumer confidence, retail sales, durable goods and jobless claims. It has a “barometer” for each of these indicators. Check it out at www.kiplinger.com/links/recovery.
